What Are We Going to Do?
What are we are going to do? We have planned a three-phase dialogue process that starts tonight. Phase I runs from October 22 through November 21, 2009. On November 21, we will host a half-day community conversation about what Sustainable Portsmouth should look like. Between now and then, online and through various other activities, we will be asking you to respond to several important questions. Through our registration survey, we will be looking to find out:
- What types of sustainable practices are you now engaged in?
- What does sustainability mean to you?
- What do you like most about Portsmouth?
- What are the most important characteristics of Sustainable Portsmouth?
We will ask you to identify and submit the following information that we will share with the community through the website and on November 21:
- Your sustainable practices;
- Unique sustainable activities you find in our community;
- Sustainability resources to include in our “citizens resource” room;
- Photographs of things “sustainable” and “not sustainable”.
On November 21, we will pull together and share all of the information that we gather over the next three weeks. Working in small group conversations, we will specifically ask participants to identify the five most important characteristics of Sustainable Portsmouth. All of that information will then be reviewed and serve as the basis for crafting a vision statement for Sustainable Portsmouth.
Phase II will follow in January and February, 2010. Based on the vision generated in Phase I, we will engage in a substantive dialogue planning process to put together the most important actions that will be necessary to make Portsmouth the most sustainable place to live and work in for everyone. In addition to traditional study circles, we are attempting to put together online deliberative dialogue processes. The Phase II goal is to identify the critical elements of the 5-Year Sustainability Plan sought by the City Council.
However, unlike the Master Plan, the Sustainability Plan will not be a hand-off to city government. City government will certainly be involved in the process, but we are not talking about a plan based on legislative mandate. In Phase III, we will work to identify how to implement the plan. That is, how to engage the “98%” in making Portsmouth the most sustainable place to live and work in for everyone? Will it involve public/private partnerships? Will it be done through the neighborhoods? Will there be a new community organization? We believe that those who create the plan are in the best position to figure out how to implement “their” plan. Those who have vested themselves in the plan by creating it are the ones who will most likely make it successful.